Husain Haqqani 'too afraid to leave Pakistan prime minister's house'

Pakistan's former ambassador to Washington was sheltering on Monday night in
the prime minister's official Islamabad residence as his lawyer accused the
judicary and military of conspiring against the ex-official.

Husain Haqqani was forced to resign as ambassador late last year after a Pakistani-American businessman claimed he had passed on a memo on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari pleading for US help to oust its army chiefs.

The memo was allegedly sent to the United States then Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, via former National Security Advisor General James Jones. Both President Zardari and Mr Haqqani have denied the claims.

Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the intelligence director Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha have encouraged the establishment of a judicial inquiry into the allegations.

The developing confrontation between Pakistan's civilian and military leaderships has triggered warnings of a coup against the Pakistan People's Party-led democratic government and fueled rumours that President Zardari may yet flee the country.

The extent of mutual suspicion between the military and political leaderships was exposed by Asma Jahangir, who told The Daily Telegraph Mr Haqqani was too afraid to leave the prime minister's house to meet her in her office.

Instead she was forced to obtain a court order to allow him to visit her at the Supreme Court under a heavy police guard.

Miss Jahangir accused the judges of the Supreme Court of falling under the influence of the country's army chief after it established a judicial commission to establish whether Mr Haqqani had violated the constitution by seeking to colluded with a foreign power against state officials.

An investigation into the allegations had already been announced by the country's National Assembly, but Nawaz Shartif, the opposition leader and former prime minister, appealed to the Supreme Court for a separate judicial inquiry.

Mr Haqqani's lawyer Asma Jahangir last night said she will not represent him in the inquiry because she believes the judges are acting under the influence of the military establishment. "They've set up a commission not to probe what is there already but to go further and create more evidence the case is stacked against Haqqani, of course," she said. "He would not come to see me at my office in Islamabad. The only place I could meet him was at the [prime minister's] house. I refused to take his affidavit unless we were face to face and in a place where I was certain no-one was watching us," she said.

Former senior Pakistan Army officer Lt-Gen Talat Masood said the military had already achieved its objectives when Mr Haqqani was forced to resign, but it remains determined that the truth be established, regardless of the political fall-out. "They want to see whether it was done at the individual level or whether it had the blessing of anyone in the presidency. Whatever the political consequences, they still think it's worth it," he said.